Eating Struggles

On Friday afternoon, I picked up the kids after their last round of playground time. I got Henry first. He was at a table reading a book quietly. He appeared quite focused. Miss Marissa said that he had a great day. We then picked up Miss R who was playing with puppets. She seemed to have a good day too. Henry really wanted to go to Trader Joe's for a balloon, but he had to settle for the Walmart, which is the closest grocery store to us that sells goat's milk. He loves shopping.

We left our neighborhood Walmart with cookies for the kids. Miss R ate two cookies, and Henry ate 1.5. We watched a little of Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone before dinnner. Our neighbor Yvonne had given Jeff some beans and rice. Henry loved the beans. Miss R refused to try anything. She eventually tried some of the crust on the hot dog appetizer. Not much though. Henry ate all of his beans and one of the hot dog pieces rolled in crust. We let him watch TV while we waited for Miss R to eat some. She just sat there and refused to touch her food. We let Henry down to watch more TV but told Miss R that we'd only let her down if she tried some of her dinner. She refused. So she sat there. I read. Then, Jeff and I switched places. Eventually, we sent Miss R to bed b/c she looked tired but refused to eat. We aren't sure that this was the appropriate way to handle her food refusals. In fact, the books say that toddlers won't let themselves starve. And yet, we know that our gal is not eating. No, she isn't starving but she isn't growing like she should. So what should we do? We've done the kind offering for the last 9 months. Can't say that really got us anywhere. We are frustrated.

After dinner, I gave Henry the rest of his cookie, which he ate. Then he tried some tapiocca pudding, which he liked. Then, he requested animal crackers. Then, he wanted milk. Although this is a lot more sugar than he normally eats (although other than the cookie, the dessert items weren't as bad as a lot of desserts on sugar), we were pleased that he was eating some foods with calories. Not to mention that he did eat his beans at dinner. I got a lot of snuggle time with him on the floor as we watched the movie and talked about the characters. Then, it was time for bed.

We've decided to restrict the amount of water at bed. While waiting for Miss R to eat something, I read that water can decrease the amount of food kids eat...although Henry's water usually comes right before bed when he isn't going to be eating until the next morning, so I don't know how well that advice really applies.